Petar Marjanovic

The theatre

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Theatre among Serbs has a tradition which is more than eight centuries
old, although theatre life did not unfold without interruptions. Serbian
theatre performances in the Middle Ages had a basically secular and
entertaining function (improvisations without written texts were staged in
public places) and remained beyond the bounds and influence of the
Orthodox church. Data from the religious literature of the thirteenth
century reveal that church authorities forbade their congregation to
attend gatherings where actors showed their performances. In the work
Eulogy to Saint Simeon and Saint Sava, Teodosije (1264-1328), a monk at
the Serbian monastery of Hilandar and a writer, pointed out, as opposed to
the heavenly beauty of the church, "the actor's odious theatre" which had
been organised on the streets, that people gathered, regardless of the
weather, watched and listened insanely to harmful devilish songs and
indecent, rude words all the way to the end. The traits of once staged
scenes and old sport festivities lived on in the Serbian milieu during the
fourteenth century as well. In the fresco painting The Mocking of Christ,
created between 1317 and 1318 in the monastery of Staro Nagoricino, the
endowment of King Milutin, three characters in long sleeves, together with
several figures with unusual instruments, are seen in the foreground.
Serbian rulers, who had a friendly and diplomatic relationship with
Dubrovnik, sent their music and entertainment groups for the celebrations
of Saint Blasius (the patron of Dubrovnik) and artists from Zeta and
Dubrovnik visited Serbia (1412 and 1413). Programmes consisted of various
musical, pantomime and jester's skills and exhibitions. At the end of the
fifteenth century, a convert to Islam, Ali-beg Pavlovic, who was certainly
of Serbian origin, sent his theatre group to Dubrovnik. It was led by
Radoje Vukosalic, a Serb, and from the letter of introduction it can be
concluded that Vukosalic is the first known Serbian actor - the manager of
that traveling theatre group. Turkish rule (second half of the fifteenth
century to the beginning of the nineteenth century) interrupted the
cultural development of the Serbs, and during that period only
performances of religious character were staged from time to time. The
only exception was Vojvodina, where a segment of the Serbian people,
especially after the end of the seventeenth century, had lived in the
multiethnic culture of the Habsburg Monarchy. Thus, theatre activity was
under central European influence.

The first modern Serbian play was the so-called school drama:
Traedokomedija by Manuil Kozacinski (1699-1755), by which recent dramatic
literature among Serbs had begun, was performed in Sremski Karlovci in
1734. The school drama period lasted until 1813, when amateur acting
commenced. At the end of August, 1813, the first play was staged in Pest:
The Nutcracker Bird by Joakim Vujic (1772-1847), created on the basis of a
work by August Kotzebue. Actors-students from school drama plays were
replaced by grown-up actors, three of whom were professionals. After
arriving in Serbia, Vujic founded the Prince's Serbian Theatre in
Kragujevac (1835-1836), in which he worked as the manager, literary
consultant, producer, leading actor, translator and adapter of dramatic
works. Due to his theatre activity, Joakim Vujic deserved the somewhat
pathetic title "the father of Serbian theatre".

In 1838, the first professional theatre company among the Serbs was
created in Novi Sad. It was the Travelling Amateur Theatre, which had
performed in Novi Sad, Zemun and Pancevo up to 1840; then, from June, 1840
to the end of 1841, in Zagreb (under the name "The National Theatre
Company"). In February of 1842 it merged with the Theatre at Djumruk (the
custom's office in Belgrade, making a professional ensemble out of it.
This theatre deserves credit for creating the first regular professional
ensembles among South Slavs (Novi Sad, Zagreb, Belgrade) in the seventh
decade of the nineteenth century.

A great playwright among Serbs was Jovan Sterija Popovic (1806-1856).
After abandoning the schemes of pseudo-Classicism and national
Romanticism, Popovic became the first Serbian author with the distinctive
features of the Realist approach to the literary and theatre substance, as
well as the basic mainstay of the repertoire of Serbian theatres from 1830
to 1870. Creating characters on the basis of living models and revealing
the comic side of their nature and personality, he offered a lucid
analysis of the mentality and temperament of his fellow citizens, thus
making it possible for distinguished Serbian actors to give a series of
convincing artistic creations, some of which became legendary. Even today
Popovic's comedies preserve their dramatic vitality and satirical
topicality. This has been proved by the following post-war performances:
The Patriots, produced by Mata Milosevic (1949), The Upstart, The
Marriages and The Patriots, produced by Dejan Mijac (1873, 1975, 1986), as
well as Liar of All Liars and The Miser (Kir-Janja), produced by Egon
Savin (1991, 1992). Popovic's works were not staged that often during the
second half of the nineteenth century, which was characterised by adapting
both Serbian theatre and Serbian playwrights to the needs and tastes of
the audience. If one keeps in mind that the two regular Serbian ensembles,
the Serbian National Theatre (founded in 1861 in Novi Sad, in the region
governed by Austria, later Austro- Hungary) and the National Theatre
(founded in 1868 in Belgrade, in the liberated Principality of Serbia),
had a predominantly patriotic function, along with constant financial
problems, their unconditional devotion to the spiritual horizon of the
audience becomes more understandable. Thus, until the end of the
nineteenth century, the repertoire of Serbian theatres was governed by two
basic types of national dramatic work: the historical drama and tragedy of
late Romanticism, in which the patriotic feelings and the awakened
historical conscience of Serbs were stimulated; besides them, there were
joyful country plays "with singing" from folk life.

In 1850s and 1860s Laza Kostic (1841-1910) and Djura Jaksic (1832-
1878) gave Serbian Romanticist drama and theatre new poetic expression and
a new type of drama hero, characterised by psychological dualism. The
stagings of Kostic's tragedies Maksim Crnojevic (1869), in which the
worlds of Serbian national epics and Shakespeare's tragedy were
interwoven, and Pera Segedinac (1882), in which a tragedy from the history
of Serbian people was interconnected with the burning problems of Kostic's
time, were theatre landmarks. The performances of Jaksic's dramas
Jelisaveta, the Princess of Montenegro (1868) and Stanoje Glavas (1878)
proved his talent and passionate, rebellious temperament, but also his
poor dramaturgical skills.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the dominant influence of German
models in Serbian theatre decreased. With the return, especially to
Belgrade, of the individuals who were educated in France, the influence of
French theatre strengthened. Before the World War I, this was the
influence of Comedie-Francaise and Paris boulevard theatres, rather than
new theatre trends in France. Recent styles of European dramaturgy and
theatre (Naturalism, Symbolism, Expressionism) - and not only French -
were sensed in Serbian dramaturgy and theatre. Borisav Stankovic
introduced new sensitivity and new poetic tones in the Realist approach
into the already worn-out genre of popular folk plays "with singing", with
his work Kostana (first performed in 1900), which has a cult following
among Serbian theatres and audiences.

Branislav Nusic (1864-1938) left his mark on the entire twentieth
century, dominating the repertoire of Serbian theatre. Devoting his life
to the theatre, not only through his writing but also through his
activities in the theatre (as a manager, literary consultant, producer,
and as an actor as well in his early years), he would listen carefully to
see when the audience would laugh and then used this experience in writing
his comedies, which are characterised by the widest possible gamut of
procedures and approaches to provoke laughter. Still up-to-date and vital,
Nusic's works were fertile ground for several extraordinary performances
in modern Serbian theatre (The Bereaved Family, produced by Mata
Milosevic, The People's Representative, produced by Dejan Mijac) and truly
successful experiments with changes in genre (A Suspicious Person,
produced by Sonja Jovanovic, Mister Dollar, produced by Miroslav Belovic,
The Masses, produced by Dejan Mijac).

Dobrica
Milutinovic in the title role of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, the
National Theatre, Belgrade, 1924

Between the two world wars, the theatre-going public was enchanted by
the performances of the visiting Moscow Art Theatre (1920-1921 and 1924),
which became the ideal. However, different stylistic orientations appeared
in practice: from Expressionism and Symbolist stylisation to Naturalism
and psychological Realism. It should be noted that, parallel to the
elements of Romanticist diction in acting (as a reflection of the
nineteenth century), which continued to thrive in the first post-war
decade, natural urban speech and modern sensitivity in theatrical
expression also appeared. At that time, Belgrade had an ensemble at a
high, central European level of performance.

After World War II, the theatre in Serbia started developing rapidly.
In spite of the many negative effects of administrative management in the
theatre, a more self-conscious and serious relation toward creative work
was shaped and artistic ambitions increased. However, the early post-war
years were characterised by the Soviet influence and Stanislavsky's
dogmatically understood Method. Serbian imitators combined the aesthetics
of the Moscow Art Theatre - which belonged to a particular, specific
period, and was thus condemned to be ephemeral - with the essence of
Method, which is based on the questioning, confirmation and further
development of the eternal laws of the very nature of performance on
stage. The only exception was the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, founded in
Belgrade in 1947, which gathered the best actors from all over Yugoslavia.
Thanks to its artistic director Bojan Stupica (1910-1970) and the
theatre's orientation toward the improvement of artistic skills and
professionalism, this theatre turned out to be an outstanding European
theatre in the first decade of its activity. This was proved by its
success at the Theatre of Nations in Paris, with performances of Uncle
Maroje by Marin Drzic, in 1954, Egor Bulichov by Maksim Gorky, in 1955,
The Bereaved Family by Branislav Nusic and The Discovery by Dobrica Cosic,
in 1964. This can be illustrated with the review in the newspaper "Le
Figaro", written by Jean-Jacques Gautier: "The way in which the Yugoslav
Drama Theatre from Belgrade performed Egor Bulichov is most
praiseworthy... We have a homogenous ensemble in front of us... full of
the spirit of unity, which acts with a high level of consciousness and
emanates dignity." At that time, the Yugoslav Drama Theatre staged a
national and international repertoire, including modern dramas whose value
has been acknowledged. Realism was the credo of Serbian art at that time,
but the primary determination in the performances of this ensemble was to
master the genre and style of the play and to broaden the Realist
approach. They aimed to achieve authenticity of interpretation and stood
up against stereotypes, banality and vulgarisation, which thus led to the
high professionalism of the ensemble. An idolatrous attitude toward the
tasks of theatre was invoked: "The actor was an artist, the set designer -
a master, the producer - an artiste remarquable; rehearsal was a
celebration, and the opening night - a historical event.

After 1951, when Yugoslavia began to open up toward the West, a more
tolerant and artistically more productive atmosphere was created. The
Belgrade Drama Theatre, with its new repertory profile, distinguished
itself among the theatres in Serbia. Between 1951 and 1958 it staged the
plays of Arthur Miller (The Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, View from
the Bridge), Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof), John Osborne (Look Back in Anger), and other western authors. Based
on this kind of drama, a new type of acting appeared, which was
characterised by anti-academism and by privatisation in the utilisation of
the means of expression. After the performance of Beckett's Waiting for
Godot (the Belgrade Drama Theatre, 1955) was banned, a new era of Serbian
theatre began. Due to their youthful stubbornness and a combination of
fortunate circumstances, the producers and actors of this performance
managed to show the performance on the stage of the newly established
theatre Atelier 212 in 1956. The aesthetic barrier was overcome and the
authorities were forced to reconcile themselves to a certain degree of
artistic freedom, under the condition that political boundaries were not
overstepped (it was the first performance of Beckett's play on an Eastern
European stage). From 1956 to 1960 Atelier 212 performed the plays of
Jean-Paul Sartre (Huis Clos), Eugene Ionesco (The Chairs), Albert Camus
(Le Malentendu), Harold Pinter (The Caretaker), Slawomir Mrozek (The
Policemen), along with other works of modern international drama, both
from the West and the East. The stage of Atelier 212 disentangled itself
from aspirations toward verism and became real theatre - not hiding that
fact from the audience, but rather presenting itself as such. The epitome
of this acting style was the popular actor Zoran Radmilovic (1933-1985).
After the establishment of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival
(BITEF) in 1967 - whose spiritus movens was Mira Trailovic (1924-1989),
the manager, together with Jovan Cirilov (1931), the literary consultant
of Atelier 212 - this theatre has turned to the national repertoire
(discovering new playwrights or dramatising the prose of celebrated
national writers), a trend which has been a noticeable peculiarity of its
repertory policy to this day. The National Theatre, the oldest one in
Belgrade, continued to play the role of the theatre of national culture.
Having a traditionally good acting ensemble, it staged nationally and
internationally standard authors, and occasionally plays which belong to
the modern repertoire (The Forest by A. N. Ostrovsky in 1947, The Caine
Mutiny by H. Wouke in 1956, both produced by Hugo Klajn, and Krleza's
drama In Agony in 1959, produced by B. Stupica, were representative
performances in the first post-war decades). The Serbian National Theatre
from Novi Sad had a distinctive role in the theatre life of Serbia. Its
"golden age" - from 1953, when it gathered a group of young producers, led
by Dimitrije Djurkovic (1925), to 1974, when the "team of producers"
finally disintegrated - is remembered for its search for new ways of
dramatic expression in Serbian theatre. They were: the ironic lyrical
theatre, insistence on the physical aspect of acting expression, the
repertoire's orientation toward the sensitivities of the young, educated
audience, the motto that the actor and space of acting are the elementary
signs of theatre language, theatre which aims at social intervention and
the presentation of the dark sides of our epoch and of socialist society.
The activity of the National Theatre from Subotica in the last decade
should be mentioned as well. It has a multi-ethnic ensemble which,
according to Ljubisa Ristic (1947), its artistic director, decisively
shapes the character of theatre production itself - precisely because of
the mixture of various cultural influences and traditions.

In the first half century of Serbian professional theatres, the job of
producing was done by one of two persons: theatre managers (most often
writers by vocation) selected plays for the repertoire, did the critical
elaboration of the text and the character analysis, made decisions about
assigning parts (respecting the conventions of European theatres about the
division of the ensemble into acting specialities) and were responsible
for the purity of language and orthoepy on the stage. On the other hand,
prominent and experienced actors took care of the technical-scenic aspects
of the performance. Production as an autochthonous artistic act began in
Serbia in 1914, with the engagement of the first professional producers:
Aleksander Ivanovich Andreyev (1875-1940), who came to Belgrade with the
reputation of being Stanislavsky's student and a member of the MAT, and
Milutin Cekic (1882-1964), who was a disciple of German directors Carl
Hagemann and Max Reinhardt.

Theatre direction on Serbian stages between the two world wars was
marked by three producers of entirely different poetics: Mihajlo Isajlovic
(1870-1938), Jurij L'vovich Rakitin (1882-1952) and Branko Gavela
(1885-1962), during his four-year guest engagement in Belgrade. Isajlovic
studied in Germany and was a follower of the Meiningen Players and Max
Reinhardt; his theatrical poetics was based on doing scrupulous service to
the dramatic work. Rakitin, on the other hand, as a follower of the
Russian avant-garde director V. E. Meyerhold, showed an inclination toward
theatricalism, luxuriant acting expression, "physical acting", clownery
and, whenever it was possible, he chose the genre of the grotesque, using
abundant and inventive quick-witted directing. Gavela was the first
producer among the South Slavs to create his own poetics, which united
theatre classics with innovation, the cult of classical beauty and harmony
with modern vivacity of imagination and spirit. The four years which he
spent in Belgrade (1926-1929), in the prime of his creative elan, brought
a new spirit into Serbian theatre direction. Gavela turned rehearsals into
true "liturgies" of art, creating a fascinating university of theatre, at
which many Serbian actors were educated in the best possible way.

Mata Milosevic (1901), Miroslav Belovic (1927) and Dejan Mijac (1934)
distinguished themselves after World War II, and the work of Bojan
Stupica, a Slovene, in Belgrade's theatres should be especially
emphasised. Milosevic's stagings were characterised by a studious approach
to the play, which is intended to explore the truth about life and man, by
a balanced manner, by rationality and rich and refined scenic imagination
- lucid and innovative. Patient and experienced in working with actors, he
is one of the creators of natural and authentic acting, together with his
aspiration to realise a collective performance of high artistic level
(some of his best performances are characterised by an approach which
could be called "stylised Realism"). His best stagings are: Egor Bulichov
by M. Gorky, King Lear by W. Shakespeare, The Bereaved Family by B. Nusic
and At Wit's End by M. Krleza.

Miroslav Belovic built his distinct directing profile on a
comprehensive education in prestigious directing schools (Leningrad,
Stratford-upon-Avon, Belgrade). A gifted and versatile author (playwright,
poet, essayist, actor, professor), he interpreted plays by trying to put
the actor in the foreground of his performances. The most striking quality
of his productions is their poetic Realism (The Plough and the Stars by S.
O'Casey, The Hostage by B. Behan, You Never Can Tell by G. B. Shaw, Uncle
Maroje by M. Drzic and The Noble Glembays by M. Krleza in the Vahtangov
Theatre in Moscow). Belovic is credited for saving a series of neglected
works of South Slavonic dramaturgy from falling into oblivion. A new
approach to the national dramatic heritage (especially in interpreting
works of Jovan Sterija Popovic and Branislav Nusic) have characterized
Dejan Mijac, who is today the leading Serbian director. His use of a
variety of sources in preparing the performance and his meticulousness in
utilizing them ensure his authority in the acting ensemble, which is
carefully chosen and put together by him. (And even more: in spite of the
differing abilities of individuals, he is capable of making actors aware
of the performance as a whole, thus achieving brilliant individual
creations and the highest of artistic levels by the entire ensemble.) He
has a pronounced sense for the rhythm of the performance and for the
dynamics and the cadence of actor's speech in grading conflicts on the
stage - often in the dynamics of mis-en-scene. In deciphering his
production style in general, one must proceed from a comprehension of
theatre according to which the starting point is the author, and the final
one - the actor in front of the audience. His best performances are
created on the basis of the national drama corpus (The Upstart by J. S.
Popovic, The Masses by B. Nusic, The Spawning of Carp by A. Popovic, The
Sopalovic Travelling Theatre by Lj. Simovic). Of the performances staged
from the international repertoire the following should be mentioned: Vasa
Zeleznova by M. Gorky, Uncle Vanya by A. P. Chekhov, The House of Bernarda
Alba by G. Lorca, Even a Wise Man Stumbles by A. N. Ostrovsky.

Bojan Stupica was not only the producer of significant and thrilling
performances, but also an artist who aimed to create his own theatre. He
accomplished this in the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, where he
produced outstanding performances from 1947 to 1955 - Le Baruffe
Chiozzotti by K. Goldoni, Wolves and Sheep by A. N. Ostrovsky, Fuente
Ovejuna by L. de Vega, Leda by M. Krleza, and the crowning achievement of
Serbian theatre in the first post-war decade - the Renaissance comedy
Uncle Maroje by Marin Drzic (1508-1567), which was presented to audiences
in Paris, Moscow, Leningrad, Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw, Venice, and other
European cities. Stupica was a producer of exuberant imagination on stage,
temperamental and fanciful, so that every staging had the artistic stamp
of his personality: the acting, setting, lighting, music. It has been said
that, for him, the art of theatre was a manifestation of life principles,
rather than an abstract artistic law.

In 1860s and 1870s (with the necessary support of the press and the
elite of Serbian intelligentsia, which gathered around the Serbian
National Theatre in Novi Sad) actors imposed themselves upon society as
significant exponents of national ideas and as an important cultural
factor. The Romanticist epoch of Serbian acting was marked by: Tosa
Jovanovic (1845-1883), an actor of marvellous, virile stature and resonant
voice, who was the interpreter of the classical repertoire; Milka Grgurova
(1840-1924), the best Serbian actress of the tragic style, and, as the
last vestige of Romanticist acting, Dobrica Milutinovic (1880-1956). He
was the most beloved actor in the history of Serbian theatre, an artist
who possessed a distinctive individuality, a handsome and beautiful
stature, an enchanting voice and a temperament which was matchless in its
strength and in its lyrical emotional quality. He accomplished the highest
artistic achievements in his characterisations of W. Shakespeare (Romeo,
Mark Anthony, Othello, Shylock, King Lear), P. Corneille (Le Cid), J. F.
Schiller (Don Carlos), F. Dostoevsky (Raskolnikov), L. Tolstoj (Fedja
Protasov), and, in the national repertoire, B. Stankovic (Mitke) and I.
Vojnovic (Orsat the Great).

A Realist phase in Serbian acting began with Aleksa Bacvanski (1832-
1881), and it was continued in a striking manner by a pleiad of great
actors of the National Theatre in Belgrade: Milorad Gavrilovic (1861-
1931), Sava Todorovic (1862-1935), Ilija Stanojevic Cica (1859-1930), and
Dimitrije Ginic (1873-1934). The most significant actor of the epoch and
the performer of the ultimate artistic level in the history of Serbian
acting was Pera Dobrinovic (1853-1923). Dobrinovic was an actor of
luxuriant talent, although he did not possess natural predispositions for
the roles of heroes: he was short, fat, with a physiognomy in which almost
nothing of his talent was discernible, except in his vivacious eyes, and
his voice possessed neither great volume nor a seductive timbre. Yet, due
to his innate intelligence, intuition, inexhaustible imagination and
outstanding diligence, during his long-lasting, brilliant theatre career
he created several hundred various characters in the field of comic,
characterological and dramatic expression, which were interpreted in an
excellent way. Even in insignificant and mediocre plays he was able to
create memorable roles, which elevated the value of the play and the
performance in general. Through all of his roles he offered - as was
correctly noticed by Milan Grol - that which is most worthy in the art of
acting - a deep, human content. He performed roles in the plays of W.
Shakespeare (Richard III, Iago, the Fool in King Lear), J. B. P. Moliere
(Orgon, Geronte), P. Calderon, J. W. Goethe, J. F. Schiller, V. Hugo, N.
V. Gogol (the mayor in The Inspector General), A. P. Chekhov, O. Mirbeau
(Isodore Lechat in Business Is Business), R. Bracco (title role - Don
Pietro Caruso), in the plays of national authors, J. S. Popovic, K.
Trifkovic, L. Kostic, B. Nusic, as well as in many performances of
"popular plays with singing" and operettas. Dobrinovic was the first
Serbian actor to get a public monument (in Novi Sad, 1982).

The period between the two world wars brought the final domination of
Realist expression in Serbian acting. Besides a pleiad of the old
generation of actors, which was still active in the first decade of this
period, two actors should be singled out: Zanka Stokic (1887- 1947), the
most serene Serbian actress, and Rasa Plaovic (1899-1977), a great actor
of modern sensitivity. Zanka Stokic introduced an abundance of authentic
life details into her performances. Her heroines were complete human
beings, always possessing an expression of her artistic individuality (her
greatest theatre successes were the roles in comedies of B. Nusic, above
all the unforgettable Zivka from The Cabinet Minister's Wife). The first
step in modernising Serbian acting, on its way to contemporary European
expression, was done by R. Plaovic, who created the two greatest roles of
that period in Serbian acting (Hamlet in Shakespeare's tragedy and Leone
Glembaj in Krleza's drama The Noble Glembajs). Intelligent, educated,
intuitive and emotional, he was constantly striving to bring more creative
spirit and verve into performances, without renouncing matters pertaining
to life.

The magisterial line of Serbian acting, represented by Tosa Jovanovic -
Dobrica Milutinovic - Pera Dobrinovic - Milorad Gavrilovic - Zanka Stokic
- Rasa Plaovic, was continued after World War II by Milivoje Zivanovic -
Mira Stupica - Branko Plesa. Milivoje Zivanovic (1900- 1976) was one of
the last representatives of the pleiad of actors who were bards, heroes
and missionaries. He was characterized by an outstanding and powerful
acting temperament, supplemented by a distinctive stature and expressive
voice. In interpreting characters from all kinds of genres, he sculpted
them from one block, like a huge rock, with great inspiration and
elementary strength in his momentum (title role in Egor Bulichov by M.
Gorky and King Lear by W. Shakespeare, Father in Prisoners of Altona by J.
P. Sartre, Agaton in The Bereaved Family by B. Nusic). The landmark in the
post-war Serbian theatre was Branko Plesa (1926), who introduced Serbian
acting into the modern trends of European theatre expression. His handsome
stature, impeccable diction - which stimulated his faster and more modern
speech rhythm, unseen beforehand on Serbian stages, together with broad
education - which enabled him to move masterfully through the works of
classics and the most modern writers of our time, made him a unique actor
in the contemporary Serbian theatre (Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov by F.
M. Dostoevsky, Marquis de Posa in Don Carlos by J. F. Schiller,
Shakespeare's characters Edgar and McDuff, the anthological role of the
villain in At the End of the Road by Marijan Matkovic, as well as a series
of comical and lion characters in the works from the international
repertoire). Right next to Zivanovic and Plesa stand Ljubisa Jovanovic
(1908-1971) and Ljuba Tadic (1929), with remarkable performance qualities
and valuable artistic achievements. Jovanovic was characterised by great
power of transformation, a handsome virile stature and a specific
sensitivity which made it possible for him to adjust spontaneously to the
modern international repertoire and new theatre trends better than any
other actor of the generation between the wars (Falstaff in Henry VIII by
W. Shakespeare, Neschastlivtsev in The Forest by A. N. Ostrovsky, Danton
in Danton's Death by G. Buechner, Jack Boyle in Juno and the Peacock by S.
O'Casey). Tadic's acting is distinguished by a vigorous temperament,
suggestiveness and concentration, in his great protagonistic roles: his
creation of Hoederer in Les Mains Sales by J. P. Sartre (magnificently
produced by Bora Draskovic) is at the very peak of the best creations of
Serbian acting. The most distinctive actress in the first two post-war
generations was Marija Crnobori (1919), a tragedienne of the classical
repertoire (Sophocles' Antigone, Racine's Phaedra, Goethe's Iphigenia).
The entire period after World War II has been marked by Mira Stupica
(1923), an actress of great talent with a broad creative gamut. Possessing
an abundance of natural gifts, she has imbued all her theatre creations
with genuine emotionality (Petrunjela in Uncle Maroje by M. Drzic, Sasa
Negina in Wolves and Sheep by A. N. Ostrovsky, Danica in The Love of Your
Life by Milan Djokovic, Grusche Vahnadze in The Caucasian Chalk Circle by
B. Brecht).

In the period between the two world wars a circle of theatre set
designers and costume designers, who discarded the restraints of European
illusionistic scenography, began its activity in Belgrade. Two of them
should be singled out: the painter Jovan Bijelic (1884- 1964), who
accomplished the transition between fine arts and the art of set design in
Serbian set designing, and Vladimir Ivanovic Zedrinski (1899-1974), who
successfully brought together the Realism of the Russian set design school
and modern tendencies toward stylisation. After World War II, set design
and costume design were incident to all changes which the theatre in
Serbia went through. The most distinguished designers in the first decade
were Milenko Serban (1907-1979), a set designer of Realist orientation and
Milica Babic- Jovanovic (1909-1968), a costume designer whose works were
characterised by a refined perception of style and temperance in utilizing
colouristic effects, folklore elements and ornamentation. New tendencies
have appeared in the set designs of Vladimir Marenic (1921), distinguished
by monumental but functional solutions which suggestively revived the
ambient set. The same was characteristic for the works of costume designer
Mira Glisic (1918-1965), which were marked by rich colourism and lucid
inventiveness. The most significant set designer today is Miodrag Tabacki
(1947), who departs from the directors' conceptions, giving them his own
connotations and his fundamental ideas. The first lady of Serbian costume
design, Bozana Jovanovic (1932), is less preoccupied with precision of
costume cuts and details, but her values live and vibrate together with
the script, creating a piercing atmosphere on stage.

The most important theatre institution in Serbia is Sterijino pozorje
(established in 1956 in Novi Sad), in the framework of which the Yugoslav
Theatre Festival - a festival of performances created on the basis of the
national drama heritage - is held every year. For almost four decades, the
performances shown at this festival have made a valuable contribution to
the affirmation of Serbian and south Slavonic writers. The performance
Heaven's Detachment (1956), by two débutants, Aleksandar Obrenovic (1928)
and Djordje Lebovic (1928), was the turning-point in the Serbian post-war
dramaturgy. It is a soul- stirring story about seven prisoners in the Nazi
camp Oswiecim (Auschwitz), who agree to murder their co-sufferers in order
to prolong their own lives for three months. The play negated Socialist
Realism, revived Realism and courageously opened up discussion about
morality and human nature. In the next decade, theatres began staging the
works of the national drama corpus more and more, and the characters and
situations in them became psychologically more complex, closer to the
problems of modern society. Historical analogies and Aesopian language
were used, in order to explain the contemporary social situation and the
current historical process. Important moments of that decade were the
performances of dramas written by Borislav Mihajlovic (Banovic Strahinja),
Velimir Lukic (The Long Life of King Oswald) and Zoran Hristic (Savonarola
and His Friends). A new turning- point was a series of performances of the
plays by Aleksandar Popovic (1929). He has radically reexamined the basic
normative presuppositions of Aristotle's dramaturgy. He has placed the
language values at the forefront, which then intrusively take control over
almost all dramatic expression. In the most successful early stagings of
Popovic's works (Ljubinko and Desanka, The Hundred Loop Stocking, The
Pig's Trot), the producers followed the lead of the writer. Even more
successful theatre productions were accomplished by Branko Plesa and Dejan
Mijac, in those of Popovic's plays which offered criticism of social
reality (The Development of Boris Tailor, The Spawning of Carp, Rooster
without a Tail, Coffee with Cream). Besides Popovic, the most respectable
modern Serbian writers are Ljubomir Simovic (1935) and Dusan Kovacevic
(1947). The stagings of the best Simovic's works (Hasanaginica, The
Miracle in Sargan, The Sopalovic Travelling Theatre) revealed his moral
sensitivity, the melody and rich quality of his language, and his
extraordinary gift for humorous imagination. In his popularity among
audiences, Dusan Kovacevic succeeded Branislav Nusic, although he is a
playwright who, taking for granted all the virtues of his own people,
unsparingly ridicules all their shortcomings, fallacies, baseness and
foolishness (The Marathoners' Victory Lap, The Collection Centre, The
Balkan Spy and Saint George Slaying the Dragon). The activities of
Sterijino pozorje have contributed to the international recognition of
Serbian playwrights. A great number of Nusic's plays was performed in the
theatres of the Soviet Union (the biggest success was The Cabinet
Minister's Wife, staged in the theatres of 27 cities), the Czech Republic,
Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and other countries. Simovic's drama The
Sopalovic Travelling Theatre was shown in France (Paris), Poland, the
Czech Republic and Slovakia. The comedies of Dusan Kovacevic were staged
in theatres in Germany (Berlin, Nuernberg, Potsdam), Poland (Warsaw,
Cracow), Hungary (Budapest), Great Britain (London), the USA (San
Francisco), Ukraine (Kiev), the Czech Republic (Prague) and Slovakia
(Bratislava).

A special emphasis should be placed upon the International Theatre
Festival BITEF, thanks to which, as it has been already mentioned,
Belgrade was incorporated into the theatre map of Europe and the whole
world. It also made it possible for Serbian theatre to be directly
informed of significant international theatre achievements. It should not
be forgotten that some performances in the early years of BITEF shocked
the public with their nudity, the lavishness of erotic scenes and the
aggressive behaviour of the actors. However, it was a privilege to see, on
Belgrade's stages, the authors who have made their mark on the recent
history of international theatre (Peter Brook, Ingmar Bergman, Jerzy
Grotowski, Anatolij Efros, Tadeusz Kantor, Peter Stein, Luca Ronconi,
Julian Beck, Judith Malina, Robert Wilson, Eugenio Barba, Pina Bausch and
others). In the following years BITEF became an important stimulus in the
creation of an international intellectual theatre climate in Serbia, and
the experiences of BITEF were incorporated by distinguished authors in
Serbian theatre. Serbian productions appeared more frequently in the
programme of this festival and some of them proved to be up to European
and international standards (the performance of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre
Happy Days or Tarelkin's Death by Suhovo-Kobilin, produced by Branko
Plesa, shared the first prize of BITEF with performances of Bergman and
Efros in 1974, and in 1990 the performance of the same L'Illusion Comique
by Corneille, produced by Slobodan Unkovski, shared the first award with
the performance of the theatre Ultima Vez from Brussels).

Thirty-five professional theatres are active in Serbia today, as are
three institutions of higher education (the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in
Belgrade, the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and the Faculty of Arts in
Pristina), and two theatre museums (the Museum of Theatre Arts of Serbia
in Belgrade and the Theatre Museum of Vojvodina in Novi Sad). Five
publications specialising in theatre are also being published (the
periodical "Scena", renowned throughout Europe, "Pozoriste" ("Theatre")
and Zbornik Matice srpske za scenske umetnosti (Matica Srpska Proceedings
for Theatre Arts) in Novi Sad, and "Teatron" and "Ludus" in Belgrade.

Space will not allow a discussion of the activity of children's
theatres, puppet theatres, music and dance theatres, or an analysis of the
work of composers of stage music, or of theatre critics and theatre
experts. They have all contributed, in their own way, to the diversity and
high merit of theatre life in Serbia.